Abstract Expressionist: Robert Motherwell

The first two images are painting made from scratch on Photoshop to closely resemble two of Robert Motherwell's paintings. I used two tutorials to help me learn how to effectively use the brushes and then did my best to convey the same thing Motherwell did. His abstract paintings are comprised of lines and shapes. Then the next 4 photographs are pictures I took that resemble Motherwell's style. Motherwell did both color and black and white photography which I tried to represent in the photographs taken. I focused on capturing shapes and lines in the photographs and having strong colors. In multiples of his pictures he uses lines as the basic pattern with a shape in the middle of the lines, which I attempted to mirror in these photographs.

HDR

My HDR series was over Christmas lights. I choose this theme because Christmas lights come in different forms and colors. I wanted to capture the various ways Christmas lights are used during this festive time of the year. I also liked the effect lights gave HDRs. The detail in the glow of the strings of lights as well as their surroundings was a look I thought was cool.

I went outside my house at dusk to take these HDRs. I had a little problem with trying to find places outside that my tripod would stand flat on. My Christmas lights were in various places and so i had to adjust height and angle of the camera for each picture shot. It happened to be windy outside so this was also another obstacle I had to overcome. The HDRs i shot inside was overall easier to take because the floor was flat and there was no wind.

Photo Essay

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/11/03/magazine/03limbs_in.html?ref=magazine    

This photo essay is about how people turned their prosthetic body parts into a work of art. Instead of making their prosthetics look like a normal arm or leg these people choose to embrace the fact they are an amputee and have fun with it. People tend to hide their imperfections instead of embracing them. From this photo essay I learned that these amputees do not want to be pitied without having to hide the fact that they are losing a limb.  A photo essay is a series of photos that tell a story with little text to help. The images and text relate because the text helps tell the story that the picture can not fully portray. 

W Eugene Smith

W Eugene Smith used under and over exposure to deepen his translation and communication with the viewer. In the first picture above the bunny symbolizes innocence and purity. As well as in the second picture that the boy is bright white compared to the dark water he is about to dive into. This symbolizes  life because children start off innocent until they get older and become a part of society and start to see the evils of the world. So the black water symbolizes society and the young innocent boy about to dive into it. The third picture you can see the dark clouds and world around him while the man is wearing a light colored suit. Smith under exposed to darken the low lights and give the picture a depressing tone. You can see in this third image he is surrounded by hardship and slowly he is dimming and giving into the darkness. 

Crack Shack

We went down to the Crack Shack one day in 6th hour. The chain link fences and high brick walls were surrounding us. Then all of a sudden there was a loud scream and chaos broke out. People were running everywhere and it was pitch black. But there was no way out. We all wondered through the rooms and in between tall chain linked fences. We finally gathered and took a head count when we found out Chloe was missing. We all sat anxiously waiting what would happen next. We all jumped at every little noise and watched the mice run around on the floor. Then mysteriously an hour later the back door creaked open...

About Light

These about light pictures capture the effect light has on pictures. The first picture shows different amounts of light makes different colors visible. The sun is the subject of light in both of these pictures because the sun is the largest source of light and it has an effect on every picture taken in nature. The sun adds details to the clouds around and allows us to see the details. In the second picture you can see the sun shining on and through the wooden structure. This capture the about light assignment because the viewer can see how the light reacts eith the stucture, reflecting off of it and also sun rays shinging through it.

Dynamic Range

 Dynamic Range in photography is the ratio between the measurable light intensities. In our daily lives we do not see true black or white only different degrees of them. A stop is halving or doubling the light in a photograph. Most single sensor digital cameras can capture 9-10 stops. Film can have up to 10 stops when negative and 5-6 when positive. A human eye can capture 10-14 stops which is more than most digital cameras. These pictures below show the same pictures with different with different dynamic range and it shows the difference.

Alexander Harding

  By Alexander Harding 

This photo is about light because he captured the reflection of the sun coming through the window and bouncing off the mirror.  

Berenice Abbot

Berenice Abbot documented New York through analog photography after her trip from Italy. Coming from a different culture this shows how New York was seen from an outside point of view. I like this picture because it capture a part of New York that is very known and that is the business side. It is known for all of its billboards and crazy ways of advertising so this captures the gorgeous skyline and advertisement. The architecture in New York is very unique and this photograph captures the big city feel. Along with the business side of New York this picture also captures the business of peoples life who live there with all the cars on the street. When someone lives or is visiting New York you can look up from the side walk and just see all the tall skyscrapers around you heading straight upward, but this photograph gives a different perspective than what most people see. Also because this series was taken with analog it gives it a nice grainy and raw feel to the picture, and New York is known to be a little rough on the edges. I believe the use analog adds to the feel of New York. Once Abbot comes back from Italy she had a new sense of normal and because of that she was able to photograph New York from an outside perspective since she had not readjusted her self to New York yet. New York is known as the city of lights and because the picture is black and white there is less focus on all the colors and lights but on the architecture and meaning. The tall buildings in the background add to the characterization of New York and its stress on the importance of business. In the photo you can see the clouds which adds to the dreariness. Although New York is seen as a popular tourist spot and the place where dreams come true there is also serious problems and I think this photo represents both sides of New York. Abbot was able to take pictures of New York from an unbiased perspective after being apart of a separate culture. Instead of taking pictures of homeless people or food to represent New York she used her creativity to find the best way to capture the real New York.

Ulysses

1. I believe the poem of Ulysses is about all the experiences that one has in their life time and how they create ones life. The narrator is trying to say that he is getting older in age and is looking back on his memories of young age and having the want to create new ones. He is afraid that with his old age comes with not being able to create memories and experience new things. I believe this was his main point of the poem because he describes memories of his past and how he remembers his life but expresses the want to travel more.
2 .  For always roaming with a hungry heart 
Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments, Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;   

 I choose this line of the poem because he is searching for new experiences and reflecting on his past memories. Here he reflects on the fact that we need to seize the day and open your self up to all expeirences. 

Hand Scans

 

 

For the first picture it was created by having two layers and changing opaqueness of the second layer. Then I changed the layer filter to darken which made it so the only part of the second layer that was visible was on the hand in the first layer. The second picture was simply created by having one hand in a fist and the other start out flat and then while it was scanning I slowly curled it up. The last picture was two different scans layered over one another and then I erased everything but the hands of the second layer, allowing the second pair of hands to show.

Experimental Pinhole Photography

All of these experimental pinholes have one thing in common and its that it is movement and long exposures that created the abstract look to them. The first pinhole, I like because it shows the character and emotion of the exited kids and it captures their movement. The second picture I enjoy picture it looks very haunting with all of the flags looking like they are disappearing but in reality it is windy and it was taken with a long exposure. The last picture I can not tell exactly what it is of, but it looks like the pinhole had a long exposure and a type of light was moving or the camera itself was moving.

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange is known for her American documentary photography. Before the 1920's  she focused on photographing unemployed and homeless people. She traveled in the 1920's and took portraits of Native Americans. By the 1930's she focused on documenting the Great Depression and its effects on the public.  The portraits she takes captures the raw emotion of her subjects. 

Photo #5

During the still life photography project I took this picture. I used a single studio light to illuminate the objects on a plain tan background. This is one of my favorites because of the contrast colors between the roses, the lemon and the lime. While taking this picture I learned how to use studio lights to create shadows and create depth to still life objects. Working with still objects was more difficult than working with humans because you could not depend on the model to make the picture more interesting, you had to it achieve that by using placement and lighting.

Photo #4

This picture was created in the self digital portraits section of the class. I personally like this one because it involved a lot of use of various tools on Photoshop including the eraser too, move tool, lasso tool and others. This assignment helped me become more comfortable with using the tools on Photoshop and editing photos. The background of this photo is my chalkboard at home and I simply duplicated it multiple times. Then I put both of the photos of myself on the background separately and used the eraser tool to blend the hard lines. The self digital portraits was one of my favorite projects in photo one because it put all the tools we learned through the year to use.

Photo #3

I took this picture during the line composition project. The purpose of this project was to help us learn composition elements and learn how to make a line the subject of a photo. This is a photo of the pattern on an ottoman. By focusing just on the pattern and nothing else to distract the viewers eye, it makes the lines the center focus. The texture on the ottoman is also visible and it creates diagonal lines. Also the contrast between the white and black makes the lines even more prominent.

Photo #2

This was taken during the wide open and up close project. During this project, not being able to change the aperture was difficult and created many obstacles. I gained an understanding of the aperture and what it does, because in some places outside it was to bright for the light meter to control the light without the aperture. These challenges tested my knowledge and skills with the camera.  Although in this picture the texture of the school's brick wall was captured very well.

Photo #1

I took this image during the formal composition project. This photo of Natalie is one of my favorites because of the shadows and the emotion in her eyes. I like the shadows because it gives her face dimension. Formal composition requires more of a set up than casual photos, including back drops and lights. In this project I learned how to use studio lights and different techniques to create quality photos.Other than technical skills, I also learned to have a casual conversations with the subject to capture genuine emotions.